PM's

[clivem]

Guys, PM's haven't been migrated. If it isn't possible to do this, can I please have access to the old site so I can get some of the messages. I have someones contact details, someone I need to contact in a PM.

[charic]

Sorry we can't migrate the PMs

Drop me a PM and I'll try to help out but it will be tomorrow I'm afraid.  I've been up since 10pm yesterday!

[clivem]

Just now, charic said:

Sorry we can't migrate the PMs

Drop me a PM and I'll try to help out but it will be tomorrow I'm afraid.  I've been up since 10pm yesterday!

Can you not just make the old site available via a separate URL, with no new content posting allowed, for a transitional period, please? I understood that the only potential hickups in this migration were going to be with images and some tag changes. It would be useful for me to be able to back-up locally the things that haven't been migrated like PM's.

[charic]

Unfortunately not really!

[Woodinblack]

When you get a change (and I am sure you have been busy enough to not want to look into it now) I would certainly be interested in some way of accessing them too

[ped]

Didn't anyone read my reminders to save any pending deal info? Posted several and sent out a mass email.

[clivem]

I don't know what to say.... other than while I appreciate your efforts, if you are going to migrate to another platform, it is really helpful to migrate to something where a FULL migration is possible.

[clivem]

Just now, ped said:

Didn't anyone read my reminders to save any pending deal info? Posted several and sent out a mass email.

Pending deal info..... I don't remember anyone saying that every PM was going to be lost with the migration!

[Sharkfinger]

Did see the advice to save contact details of deals in progress but I didn't realise we'd lose PMs. Did I just not read it properly? 

Although I hasten to add I appreciate the hard work that was put in and the new site looks great. Well done guys

Edited November 11, 2017 by Sharkfinger

[charic]

1 minute ago, clivem said:

I don't know what to say.... other than while I appreciate your efforts, if you are going to migrate to another platform, it is really helpful to migrate to something where a FULL migration is possible.

Believe me, we tried to find a way.  Unfortunately even managing this has been the work of years

[Sharkfinger]

I'm sure you did everything you could. Sh!t happens, we'll just have to suck it up. If you do find a way to let us access them, please do let us know

[Woodinblack]

I saw the contact detail thing, didn't realise it would lose PMs.

I am sure you put the effort in and I know what a ballache moving a forum system with a lot of users is, and how thankless a task it is, and I am also assuming there isn't a current tool to transfer stuff from this system to another system, but isn't it ultimately just a few database query, modification, inserts to move things from one database to another? Having spent too many years of my life doing database programming, there is nothing that exists in one database that can not be modified to move to another database, if both have the same underlying function (ie, forum to forum, banking software to banking software, telephone exchange system to telephone exchange system).

[charic]

Ultimately a script probably could have been devised, but the new system is quite drastically different and there are fields in the new DB that I don't even know what they do.  The ways various things are managed would have been a bloody nightmare.  I really did try to grab the PMs but it's a bit of a git!

[Woodinblack]

Well, if you want any help with stuff like that at any point, it is what I have spent a lot of my time doing, getting things from one place to another. Can't be any worse than getting two african countries telecoms systems to interact!

[dannybuoy]

Same goes for converting the IMG tags from the old format so that they still show up. We massively appreciate the hard work that’s been put in, but if there were obstacles that couldn’t be overcome, I’m sure there would’ve been people able to help if the community was asked. I’ve had to stare at database tables to reverse engineer and migrate stuff before... it’s not my area of expertise though so wouldn’t be the most efficient at it!

[ped]

I'm just going to make a short announcement to explain how users can fix their own pics so it would be helpful if you could spread the word! Threads like 'Show your...' we could just start new ones

[charic]

Strangely, if you click on the post with the IMG in it to edit it. Hit enter and then delete and save the changes the pictures usually sort themselves out.

No change happens in the database though!

[Dood]

54 minutes ago, ped said:

Didn't anyone read my reminders to save any pending deal info? Posted several and sent out a mass email.

Apparently not lol!

[ped]

36 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

Same goes for converting the IMG tags from the old format so that they still show up. We massively appreciate the hard work that’s been put in, but if there were obstacles that couldn’t be overcome, I’m sure there would’ve been people able to help if the community was asked. I’ve had to stare at database tables to reverse engineer and migrate stuff before... it’s not my area of expertise though so wouldn’t be the most efficient at it!

Turns out all you need to do is edit then save the post again... guess the site can't 'see' it until you do that. Video and fix here

http://www.basschat.co.uk/announcement/6-post-migration-pics-and-pms-please-read/

 

[dannybuoy]

24 minutes ago, charic said:

Strangely, if you click on the post with the IMG in it to edit it. Hit enter and then delete and save the changes the pictures usually sort themselves out.

No change happens in the database though!

Surely it must change something? Perhaps it puts special escape characters around the tags or something? Anyway, it must keep track of which posts have been fixed somewhere, and if it’s not the DB....?!

[charic]

Just now, dannybuoy said:

Surely it must change something? Perhaps it puts special escape characters around the tags or something? Anyway, it must keep track of which posts have been fixed somewhere, and if it’s not the DB....?!

Nope, I think it's something that it does at the time of posting

[clivem]

Ped, the only warning I noted in an email received from BassChat was, "The only thing requiring your attention is the fact that if you have an advert with us, we'd like you to read the notice below about your images. Have a read and if you have any questions, please ask away."

No mention of PMs being "lost" in the migration, needing my attention, and the warning to save locally any relevant info from them prior to the migration.

I suspect this is going to be a huge deal to many people! I'm surprised you don't seem to realise how big a deal this is, and that it should have stopped any forum migration until a plan was in place to deal with it, IMHO.

[dannybuoy]

All my PMs get forwarded to my email address, and pretty sure it did that by default, so you should still have a copy unless you’re the type to keep your inbox clean and tidy (not me, over 30000 unread mails in mine)!

[clivem]

I guess I'm the guy who likes to keep his inbox clean..... Get an email about a PM, click on the link in the email to take me to it on the forum, and delete the email. I'm a member of several forums that have either been upgraded or migrated to completely different software, but I cannot think of an instance where I've lost any personal content as a result of this. From a community perspective, I think the private communication between members is as important as the public posting of messages. But again, that's might just be my opinion, I guess.

[ped]

5 minutes ago, clivem said:

Ped, the only warning I noted in an email received from BassChat was, "The only thing requiring your attention is the fact that if you have an advert with us, we'd like you to read the notice below about your images. Have a read and if you have any questions, please ask away."

No mention of PMs being "lost" in the migration, needing my attention, and the warning to save locally any relevant info from them prior to the migration.

I suspect this is going to be a huge deal to many people! I'm surprised you don't seem to realise how big a deal this is, and that it should have stopped any forum migration until a plan was in place to deal with it, IMHO.

Nope, I mentioned it at least three times on the forum, created a 'Please Read' section at the top and sent a mass email to all members active in the last 12 months. My wording was slightly different each time but the most ambiguous was one which said "I'm pretty sure PMs will transfer OK but it's a good idea to get a copy of any details you might need just in case". It was also announced on Facebook.